On Tuesday March 6th Rideau Institute President Peggy Mason was interviewed by Terry Milewski on CBC’s Power and Politics about yet another Canadian failure to respond to a UN request for Canadian peacekeepers.

– the visceral institutional antipathy in the Department of National Defence (DND) against UN peacekeeping;

– a weak Defence Minister who is much better at conveying what DND wants to Cabinet than the other way around; and

– an absent Foreign Minister, given her overriding responsibility for Canada-USA trade.

With its focus on the peace process and the political issues at the heart of the conflict, modern multidimensional UN peacekeeping offers a country emerging from violent conflict the best chance of building a sustainable peace. Says Mason:

The great tragedy is, after Canada’s long absence from UN peacekeeping, our military leadership is woefully ignorant of its value and why it is so important that we live up to our promise to re-engage.

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